Warning to Non-Citizen Soldiers & Vets: Complete Your Paperwork
April 30, 2019
Even after honorable discharge, foreign-born veterans who get arrested run
the risk of deportation, writes Colonel Ann Wright.
By Ann Wright
Special to Consortium News
No U.S. military veteran should face deportation, but many do.
United Deported Veterans, with an office just off the plaza after crossing
the U.S. border into Tijuana, Mexico, helps deported vets find housing, get
medical care and access disability checks if they have a disability pension
from the Department of Veterans' Affairs.
It is also tracking more than 400 non-citizen U.S. veterans with green cards
who have been deported for conviction of crimes in the U.S. Most of the
crimes are nonviolent, drug-related charges. Many deported veterans have
been living in the U.S. for decades.
(ACLU report, Discharged and Discarded)
During a visit to his office earlier this month, Hector Lopez, the group's
office director, estimated thousands more non-citizen U.S. veterans have
been deported and have not sought assistance from his office.
Three percent of the U.S. military veteran population in 2012, or about
608,000, were foreign-born. All of these veterans should ensure they have
citizenship to protect themselves from deportation.
Recruited on Citizenship Promise
Many deported vets, according United Deported Veterans' Lopez, were
recruited to join the U.S. military on the promise that it would provide a
path to citizenship. However, once enlisted, few unit commanders help them
file the necessary paperwork or provide time to keep the various
appointments required to complete the citizenship package.
Lopez says some immigrant veterans who have lived in the U.S. most of their
lives assume they became citizens by virtue of their military service.
That was what he once thought, too.
Gerry Condon, national president of Veterans for Peace; Colleen Smith, Gulf
War vet; author Ann Wright; Hector Lopez, deported U.S. veteran; outside
United Deported Veterans office, April 2019. (Ann Wright)
Lopez was brought by his parents to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 3 years
old. He grew up in Fresno, California, served in the military and was
honorably discharged. Remarkably, it wasn't until he was convicted of a
nonviolent crime as a civilian and deported to Mexico, that he realized he
was not a U.S. citizen and that being a U.S. veteran did not protect him
from deportation.
Many veterans born in Mexico are deported to Tijuana and several have
settled there. Veterans for Peace has established a chapter in Tijuana for
deported veterans who assist other deported veterans in ways similar to
United Deported Veterans; with housing help, access to medical care, getting
VA disability checks. Members are also providing food and water for a church
near the U.S. border that is housing people from Central America and Haiti
who are requesting asylum in the United States.
'Discharged & Discarded'
A 2016 ACLU report "Discharged Then Discarded" profiles 59 veterans,
including the charges that landed them in jail and what happened after their
deportation. Seventy three percent indicated they had no immigration
attorney representing them in their removal proceedings often because they
could not afford to hire one. As a result, many were deported to countries
where they were born but have no ties.
Due to their military training, veterans can be recruited by gangs and drug
cartels in the countries to which they are deported, the ACLU report notes.
Deportation also means breaking up families and losing access to VA medical
assistance that many vets need due to high levels of post-traumatic stress
caused by combat in U.S. wars and deployments from Vietnam, Gulf War One,
Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Syria and now Niger.
ACLU report cover showing section of U.S.-Mexico border where deported vets
have painted their names. (ACLU)
U.S. military veteran in front of section of U.S.-Mexico border where
deported vets have painted their names. (ACLU report)
In less than one decade, Congress greatly expanded grounds for deportation
beginning in 1988 when a new category of crimes "aggravated felonies" was
created for which immigrants could be deported. Previously, murder, drug and
firearms trafficking were the main offenses for which persons were deported.
Now an aggravated felony could mean any of more than 30 types of offenses,
including simple battery, theft, filing a false tax return and failing to
appear in court and includes conduct that some states classify as
misdemeanors or do not criminalize at all.
Getting back to the U.S. after deportation is hard. An alien who was removed
because of an "aggravated felony," has to stay out of the U.S. for 20 years.
For lesser charges, the wait may be five or 10 years before it is possible
to apply for a waiver. The severity of the grounds for removal affect the
likelihood of having a waiver approved.
As recently as 2012, 24,000 noncitizens were in the military, with 5,000
green-card holders enlisting every year. The highest number of enlistments
come from the Philippines (22.8 percent), Mexico (9.5 percent), Jamaica (4.7
percent), South Korea (3.1 percent) and the Dominican Republic (2.5
percent).
Opening ceremony in 2009 for the 23rd National Disabled American Veterans
Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass Village, Colorado. (U.S. Air Force
photo/Staff Sgt. Desiree N. Palacios)
National Disabled American Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass
Village, Colorado, 2009. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Desiree N.
Palacios)
The number of veterans receiving disability benefits has increased
dramatically since 2001, reports Lawyers for the Disabled. This is due to
injuries, both physical and mental, from the U.S. wars. In 2000,
approximately 2.3 million veterans received disability compensation, but 16
years later, after the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, that number doubled to
4.6 million. Many suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from what
they did or saw in the wars.
Non-citizen U.S. veterans receive lifelong service connected treatment in
Veterans Administration facilities located in the United States. However, if
a veteran is deported, the only VA facility outside the United States and
its territories (Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands)
is in the Philippines.
Most of the deported veterans known to United Deported Veterans are from
Central America and do not have the resources to travel to the Philippines
for medical assistance.
Among many other remedies, the ACLU, in its report, calls on the Customs and
Border Protection to facilitate the parole of deported veterans into the
U.S. for medical appointments and family visits.
